Winters Genealogy
Castle Oliver and the Winters Family
Castle Oliver and the Winters Family
The original Castle Oliver estate in County Limerick spanned 20,000 acres and was granted in the mid–17th century to Captain Robert Oliver, a Cromwellian soldier - he appears to have received the lands as part of the redistribution of land to Cromwellian officers. The initial “castle” was likely either a fortified house or a manor house and was subsequently known as “Clonodfoy.”
Over time, the estate passed through the Oliver family to Silver Oliver (d. 1798). He held several prominent positions, including Member of Parliament for Kilmallock and County Limerick, and High Sheriff of County Limerick (1764). His eldest son Richard Philip Oliver (d. 1843) inherited the estate in 1799 and through his marriage to Mary Turner in 1804 he inherited the Yorkshire estates of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, his wife’s stepfather.
They lived at Parlington Hall near Leeds in Yorkshire for much of their lives, leaving Castle Oliver under the care of a bailiff. This led to a period of neglect for the original castle until it was replaced by his daughters Mary Isabella and Elizabeth Oliver-Gascoigne with the current Victorian structure in 1845. Ownership subsequently passed to the Hon. William Cosby Trench in 1894.
By the 19th century, parts of the estate were sold off or redistributed; later divisions fragmented it into smaller lots, with the estate retaining only about 15 acres in modern times.
The last member of the Trench family to live at Castle Oliver was Mrs Lynn Trench, who sold it in 1978, after which it changed hands several times, eventually falling into disrepair and decay for a period. It was progressively restored to its former glory by successive owners in 1988, 1998 and 2006. It was sold to its present owners in 2015 and is open to the public in conjunction with "Limerick City of Culture" for house tours.1
Winters Connection with Castle Oliver
The Winters family were tenants of the Castle Oliver Estate for at least 121 years from 1785, the year of John Winter's lease, to 1898 when his great-grandson Andrew Winters bought the farm at Upper Sunville under the provisions of the Irish Land Purchase Act. Their landlords over that period were:
- Silver Oliver until 1798;
- Richard Oliver-Gascoigne until 1843 (as well as his brother Silver Oliver of Vienna for some parts of the estate);
- Mary Isabella and Elizabeth Oliver-Gascoigne until 1852;
- Frederick Mason Trench, 2nd Baron Ashtown until 1894;
- Hon. William Cosby Trench until 1898.
John and Thomas Winters were employed by the Castle Oliver Estate in various capacities during the early 19th century. The longest period of the Winters tenancy was spent on the farm at Upper Sunville, close to Castle Oliver itself, from at least 1829 until 1898.
